Two other churches once abutted on that of St. Jean, forming an architectural symbol of the Trinity. The present structure was in building from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, though successive earlier erections occupied the same site since the sixth. In its architecture, the Gothic, the Transitional, and the Renaissance are all exemplified. Its grand western façade, flanked by two towers, is an imposing spectacle. The triple portal is profusely decorated with well-executed sculpture, but a great deal of it remains in the mutilated condition in which it was left by Des Adrets and his Protestant soldiers in 1562. The second stage of the façade is not lavishly adorned; a magnificent rose window formed the centre of the most elevated portion.

The apse, which is also dominated by two towers, is the most picturesque portion of the cathedral. It is certainly the most ancient, and is said to combine some of the work of the great church restorer, Leydrade. The northern tower contains the bells, one of which weighs 18,000 kilogrammes. It was founded in 1508, and re-founded in 1622; on the first occasion its godmother was Anne of Brittany, and on the second Anne of Austria.

The interior of the cathedral is divided by pillars into three naves; an elegant and noble simplicity is its chief characteristic. The apse, however, is adorned with sculptures ; beautiful and well-preserved glass windows admit the light. Amongst the other special features of the interior are the high altar of coloured marble, the fourteenth-century organ, and an immense carved wainscot from the Abbey of Cluny.

Of the chapels, one displays some wood of the true cross; another enshrines the heart of St. Vincent de Paul; a third, and the most interesting, is the Chapel of St. Louis, erected by the Cardinal Charles de Bourbon and his brother, the Duc Pierre de Bourbon, and splendid with sculpture, stained glass, and other ornaments. Duc Pierre had married the King's daughter, and in allusion to this cher don, the thistle (chardon) is sculptured in great profusion. The hammers of Des Adrets' enthusiastic followers have been busy at work here also. In another chapel is a remarkable astronomical clock, manufactured by Lippius of Bâle, in 1598. It records all divisions of time, from centuries to seconds, and various astronomical phenomena. It is also furnished with a crowd of automata, representing the three Persons of the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, angels, etc., who at appointed times are worked by mechanism, and perform various functions. Popular tradition asserts that the Counts of St. Jean put out the eyes of the inventor, lest he should furnish any one else with the counterpart of their wonderful toy.

The Chapter of the Cathedral of Lyons was the most important body of clergy in France; they were thirty-two in number, all Counts of Lyons, the rank of Premier Canon being held by the reigning King of France. Amongst the remarkable events. that have occurred here was the Council-General of 1245, when Innocent IV. hurled the thunders of the Church against Frederick II., and where for the first time the cardinals wore the red dress, to distinguish them from other prelates. In 1274 a Council-General held here consummated a very short-lived union of the Latin and Greek Churches. Two crosses borne at that council, and still displayed beside the high altar, commemorate the event. In this church Henry II., the Emperor of Germany, performed mass, in one of his periodical efforts to desert his throne and take to holy orders; and here, in 1600, Henry of Navarre renewed his marriage with Marie de Medicis.

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retreats at the festivals of the Ascension and Assumption and in the month of Mary. From 120,000 to 150,000 francs are spent every year amongst the vendors of crosses, chaplets, and ex votos, whose shops line the approaches to the church.

From the terrace beside the church, or still better, from the summit of the tower, there is a magnificent view of Lyons and the vicinity. Just below, the city displays a magnificent panorama, with its two noble rivers and bridges and quays, and with the various quarters of the town distinctly discernible. Beyond are the fields and plains, and hills sprinkled with country houses. The plains of Dauphiny and Lyonnais lie outspread, watered by the two rivers, one of which-the Rhône-can be traced for twenty leagues. Eastward, the view extends to the Alps; on clear days, Mont Blanc (a hundred miles distant) is seen. More to the south are seen the Alps of Dauphiny, the mountains of the Grand Chartreuse, Mont Pilat, and Mont Ventoux. To the west rise the mountains of Lyonnais, and the peaks of Mont d'Or on the north.

There are many other churches in Lyons, but our space forbids us to enlarge further on this topic. St. George's, with its very pretty clock-tower; St. Etienne, attributed to St. Patient, and once the chapel of the Kings of Burgundy; St. Polycarp, richly adorned, and possessing the finest organ in the city; and the vast church of L'Immaculée Conception, in the quarter of Les Brotteaux: in all of these, and numerous others, the rites of the Roman Catholic religion are performed, amidst all the usual accompaniments of pomp and splendour. St. Bonaventure, beside the Place des Cordeliers, claims a passing notice. It was at first the little church of an obscure convent, but afterwards rose to great renown. The present edifice dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but it has been restored in costly style, and is lavishly adorned with sculptures and stained glass. Its history presents many points of interest. It has always been a popular church, for the fathers of the attached convent cultivated very familiar relations with the people. In 1425 an Assembly of citizens met in the church, to demand a diminution of the taxes imposed on the city. In 1468 the church was rebuilt, and took the name of Bonaventure, whose body was enshrined under one of the altars. In 1529 there was a corn famine; the poor people gathered here, and broke into rebellion. But the authorities erected a gallows before the church, and kept it hard at work for four days, when tranquillity was restored. Assemblies of notables and merchants often met here, and in this place was formed the ancient "Charity Organisation Society" of Lyons, the "Aumône Générale." In 1562, Baron des Adrets broke down the gates, overthrew statues, destroyed pictures, burnt the corpse of Bonaventure, and threw the ashes into the Rhône, but church and convent soon flourished again. A dreadful massacre of Protestants, who had fled here for refuge, took place on St. Bartholomew's Day. The shrewd Cordeliers tried to meet all needs; in their thirty chapels (many of them built by trades guilds) were altars and saints for all conditions: St. Catherine for young girls, St. Anne for widows, St. Joseph for husbands, Notre Dame de Délivrance for expectant mothers, and so forth. At the time of the Revolution the Provincial Assembly met here.

The Church of which Pothinus and Blandina were martyrs, and which Irenæus watched over, had suffered many important changes when Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons in the twelfth century, found himself in its communion. He was noted for

his charity and religious zeal, but he refused to believe the doctrine of transubstantiation which Rome was then enforcing, denounced the prevalent abuses and superstitions, and the vices of the clergy, and sought to bring back religion to the simplicity of the early Church. He gathered the poor about him, and taught them, and for their sakes translated (or caused to be translated) the four Gospels into French. To him Europe is indebted for the first version of part of the Bible in a modern tongue. The Archbishop of Lyons saw that these things tended to undermine ecclesiastical authority. The Pope was informed of what was taking place, and Waldo was excommunicated. He and all his adherents were expelled the city. They were known as Leonists, or Poor People of Lyons, and became amalgamated with the pre-existent Waldenses, whose name is not derived from Waldo, as is often erroneously supposed, for authentic documents speak of the Waldenses many years before his time.

Three hundred years passed on, and found Europe awakening to the trumpet-tones of the Reformers of the sixteenth century. France shared in the religious movement of the period, but the rulers in Church and State determined to crush out the new heresy. In 1552 five students were burnt in the corn-market at Lyons, and many other martyrs soon perished in the same manner. In 1559, Viret, the friend of Calvin, came to preside over the Reformed Church of Lyons, but was banished by the decree which forbade any but the natives of France to preach in French cities. Religion now got mixed up with politics, and the so-called Religious Wars broke out. Baron des Adrets, with his motley host of religious zealots and mercenary troops, who lived by war and pillage, held the city for several months, and committed frightful ravages, to some of which we have referred. Four or five Pacifications, of a very hollow kind, lasted for a time. In 1572 came the horrors of St. Bartholomew; the Protestants were massacred in the convents and other buildings in which they had been invited to take refuge; and the Rhône and Saône (like the Seine) carried many hundreds of dead bodies down to the sea. Lyons shared with all France the subsequent troubles from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and, indeed, was long in recovering from the blow which that disastrous event inflicted on her commerce.

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The Hôtel de Ville faces the Place des Terreaux, which has been already alluded This place was the scene of a memorable event in the reign of Louis XIII., when Cinq-Mars and his friend De Thou perished on the scaffold to satisfy the vengeance of Richelieu. In 1792 the Place des Terreaux was the scene of an attack on the Hôtel de Ville by the Sections in order to dislodge Chalier, the imitator of Marat, who was presiding over a revolutionary tribunal in the name of the Convention. The Conventional troops were beaten, the tribunal broken up, and Chalier was beheaded. It was for this that Lyons sustained that memorable siege by the troops of the Convention, to the number of 60,000. For sixty-three days the city maintained a heroic resistance, till the incessant cannonading from without, and famine and sickness within the walls, had rendered success hopeless; 30,000 citizens perished, and then, on October 9th, 1793, the town yielded to the victorious besiegers. During the siege 11,000 red-hot shot and 27,000 shells had been poured into the city, and it was now decreed by the National Convention that, in order to humble the pride of the citizens, all the principal buildings,

public and private, should be destroyed. Thousands of pounds were spent in wilful destruction, till the town was little more than a heap of ruins. It was decreed that Lyons should bear the name of "La commune affranchie." The guillotine was set up in the Place des Terreaux, and ceaselessly supplied with victims; but the guillotine was too slow in its operation to satisfy the cruelty of a Couthon, a Fouché, and a Collot d'Herbois, and prisoners were taken out by fifty and sixty at a time, to be shot on the plain of Brotteaux. Eighteen hundred victims were killed (not reckoning those who died in the siege) before the reaction set in, and Lyons resumed its ancient name, and by degrees rebuilt its devastated streets.

The Hôtel de Ville, after that of Amsterdam, is the finest municipal edifice in Europe. It was constructed in 1674, repaired by Mansard in 1702, and restored at a later date. It consists of two façades and two wings. An equestrian statue of Henry IV., by a native sculptor, and a stone balustrade, with statues of Hercules and Pallas, adorn the façade fronting the Place des Terreaux. The clock-tower, surmounted by a cupola, is 160 feet in height. In the lofty vaulted vestibule of the grand gateway are groups in bronze, representing the Saône and the Rhône, by the brothers Coustou. The façade facing the Place de la Comédie consists of several arcades, surmounted by a gallery with a stone balustrade. The most noticeable features of the interior are the reception saloons and apartments of the Prefect; the Salle des Archives, with its rich collection of archives and historical museum; the Hall of the Municipal Council, adorned with portraits of Jacquard by M. Bonnefond, and of the celebrated Abbé Rozier by Genod; and the ceiling of the grand staircase, painted in fresco by Blanchet.

The Palais des Beaux Arts, facing the Place des Terreaux, is a noble building. In the museums are very curious Roman mosaics, hundreds of inscriptions, altars, sculptures, vases, and in a vestibule decorated with mosaics are displayed the famous bronze tables upon which is inscribed a speech made by the Emperor Claudius, in 48 A.D., advocating the admission of the Gallic communities to the privileges of Roman citizenship. In addition to this collection of rare antiquities, there are a great variety of objects connected with the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; a museum of sculptures and paintings, where are found several pictures of the first rank, especially of the Italian school; and a complete collection of busts of celebrated citizens, amongst them Ballanche, Bernard de Jussieu,

Coustou, Philibert Delorme, Hippolyte Flandrin, etc. The Palais des Arts also possesses a very rich museum of natural history, as well as a library of over 70,000 volumes specially devoted to art, science, and industry.

The edifice containing these varied treasures was formerly the Convent of St. Pierre, inhabited by (or, more strictly, belonging to) a celebrated confraternity of ladies. The Abbaye de St. Pierre was first founded in the fourth century, in the reign of Constantine. The Saracens destroyed it, and good Leydrade rebuilt it. Kings dowered it with wealth, and its members added their private fortunes. The community grew in wealth and power. During 600 years and more, this band of ladies, who admitted none amongst their number except on proof of noble blood, and several of whom belonged to the royal families of France, Savoy, Lorraine, etc., grew more and more insolent. The abbess, who, amongst other pretensions, claimed suzerainty over the Counts of Savoy, styled herself "Abbess by the Grace of God,"

and a cross was borne before her in all processions. The community was notorious for the taxation and tyranny to which it subjected its vassals, and it often struggled successfully against the archbishop and his canon-counts, the municipality of Lyons, and even the King of France. In their private lives, these ladies, who were only resident at the convent when it suited them, and invited to the building what company they pleased, were frightfully dissolute. The convent was luxuriously furnished; the community had

an eye to business, and enriched itself by lending money at high interest to other religious houses, and by buying up their furniture and treasures when they were in straits. In order to profit more by their own vineyards, the sisters set up a public cabaret in the abbey. The archbishop bade them close it. They appealed to the Pope, who decided in their favour, and bade the archbishop cease from meddling. Things got so bad at one period, that the abbess herself had to eject several ladies for open scandals; but the general tone of the sisterhood was not affected. Archbishop Rohan interfered in the cause of order. Again the ladies appealed to the Pope, and the archbishop was excommunicated. But the King of France insisted on the excommunication being taken off, and sent adrift the most notorious evil-doers. In 1562, Baron des Adrets pillaged and destroyed